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Bioinspired hierarchical electrospun TiO2/BiOI nanofibers for multifunctional photocatalytic PMS activation: Antibiotics and microplastics removal
Summary
Scientists engineered a special material (tiny fibers made of titanium dioxide and a light-sensitive compound) that, when activated by regular visible light, can break down two nasty water pollutants at once: antibiotic residues and microplastic particles. In lab tests, this material removed nearly all traces of an antibiotic and other contaminants from water, and it also broke down tough plastic particles into smaller fragments—all while staying reusable for at least nine rounds without falling apart or leaching harmful metals. This matters because current water treatment plants struggle to remove both antibiotics (which fuel drug-resistant bacteria
Emerging antibiotics and microplastics are poorly removed by conventional treatment processes, requiring oxidation processes that address both dissolved and particulate contaminants. Hierarchical electrospun TiO 2 /BiOI nanofibers (TBO1–TBO4; BiOI growth 2–16 h) were engineered for photocatalytic peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation under UV-A (365 nm) and visible light. At pH 7 and 20 °C (sulfamethoxazole, SMX, 5 ppm; catalyst 0.50 g L -1 ; PMS 2.5 mM), t TBO3 achieved near-complete, blank-corrected total organic carbon (TOC) removal (≥99%) in 120 min under visible light + PMS. For a four-component multipollutant solution (20 ppm total), TBO3 reached near-complete TOC removal after blank correction (reported as ≥99%, with residual TOC close to the method quantification limit) in 120 min and maintained activity over nine cycles under visible light + PMS (≤0.7 percentage-point change; leaching below detection), whereas UV-A + PMS decreased to 85.3% by cycle 9 with ppb-level leaching. Quenching and probe assays indicate a radical-accessible PMS-assisted oxidation network; strong suppression by tert-butanol and methanol supports major ● OH-accessible oxidation with a sulfate-radical-type contribution. Under visible light (465-470 nm) + PMS, cross-linked polystyrene (PS) microplastics (20 ppm solids) underwent surface erosion, cracking, delamination, and fragmentation, accompanied by release of dissolved/sub-10 μm carbonaceous products in scaled-up tests, supporting partial oxidative transformation of particulate microplastics.